IX. Fostering International Cooperation and the Rule of Law

We have to . . . understand what American foreign policy is about. It is
to protect the security of [America] and the American people and our way of
life. We have to develop a set of partnerships with countries in order to deal
with global threats that we have not seen before.

Madeleine K. AlbrightSecretary of State January 7, 1998

Many threats to U.S. interests are truly international in nature, whether
from smuggling across our borders and shores, from distant safe havens around
the globe, or via the borderless, technological web that harnesses the world's
communications and financial systems. To respond to these threats, we must not
only act in an efficient and effective way at home, but in bilateral and
multilateral venues as well. Without effective law enforcement throughout the
international community, criminals will continue to threaten U.S. interests
simply by conducting their activities from and through those jurisdictions where
law enforcement is weak. The Strategy calls for bringing bipartisanship and
adequate resources to bear in cooperative initiatives with our international
partners. It also calls for working with like-minded governments and
international institutions that are able to exert influence in those parts of
the world where our influence is particularly limited.

A. Goal: Foster International Cooperation and the Rule of Law

The Strategy aims to foster international cooperation and the rule of law as
a means to attack the phenomenon of globalized criminal activity. As this
criminal activity cuts across national borders and jurisdictions, it is
essential that institutions within and among the states of the world be
committed to, and capable of, combating this phenomenon. For such institutions
to be successful, it is crucial that the societies in which they function adhere
to the rule of law as a rule, not an exception. This goal can be achieved by
working with our international partners to create common norms to fight
international crime, promote compliance with those norms, encourage
collaboration on law enforcement efforts, and enshrine in societies worldwide a
dedication to principles of lawfulness.

B. Objectives

Establish international standards, goals and objectives to combat
international crime by using bilateral, multilateral, regional and global
mechanisms, and by actively encouraging compliance;

Improve bilateral cooperation with foreign governments and law enforcement
authorities through increased collaboration, training and technical assistance;
and

Strengthen the rule of law internationally as the foundation for democratic
government and free markets in order to reduce societies' vulnerability to
criminal exploitation.

C. Programs and Initiatives

1. Establishing International Standards, Goals and Objectives to Combat
International Crime

Establishing international norms, securing agreements to promote compliance
with those norms, forming cooperative operational mechanisms and overcoming
political resistance opposed to cooperative operations are the core of the
Administration's strategy to foster international cooperation and the rule of
law. The United States is a leading member of important regional and
international crime control organizations and is a signatory to numerous
agreements dedicated to fighting international crime. The Administration seeks
to craft not only workable solutions to international crime problems, but also
to create cohesive, multilateral pressure against governments that fail to
combat international crime.

Key International Venues

The G-8. At the June 1997 Denver Summit, the participants recommitted
themselves to fighting international crime. During the 1997 U.S. chairmanship,
the G-8's Senior Expert Group on Transnational Organized Crime (the Lyon Group)
substantially implemented its Forty Recommendations. The Group endeavored to
gain worldwide acceptance of its recommendations as principles for combating all
aspects of international crime. Four of the Group's recent key accomplishments
include: (1) denying safe haven to criminals by strengthening prosecutorial
processes, information sharing, and extradition and mutual legal assistance
arrangements; (2) combating weapons smuggling with advanced tracing techniques
and joint training programs; (3) protecting national borders with improved
security and anti-fraud measures; and (4) preventing and detecting high tech
crime by building consensus on crucial legal and technological issues.

Another ministerial working group on financial crime has made strides toward
improving international cooperation between law enforcement agencies and
financial regulators to curb serious financial crimes and regulatory abuse. The
Administration will continue to participate vigorously in this productive,
multilateral anti-crime effort at the May 1998 Summit in Birmingham, England and
beyond.

UN Crime Commission. The United States is actively involved in the UN Crime
Commission, a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council, and
the related Center for International Crime Prevention (UNCICP). UNCICP will move
from merely undertaking research projects that promote international law
enforcement standards to providing technical assistance and institution building
programs addressing high priority criminal activities such as organized crime
and corruption. In addition, through UNCICP, the Administration will seek to
persuade other states to adopt legislation addressing mutual legal assistance
and extradition issues, and it will pursue an international convention against
international organized crime.

UN Drug Control Program. The United States works with the UN Drug Control
Program (UNDCP) and the related Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to advance
the goals of the 1988 UN Drug Convention. The United States is a major donor to
the UNDCP and through the UNDCP seeks to develop and implement programs that
reinforce and complement our international drug control efforts, especially in
those countries where our influence is limited. Through UNDCP, the
Administration is seeking to: (1) implement counternarcotics programs in
Burma and Afghanistan, the world's largest illicit opium producers; (2)
leverage Western European support for international anti-drug efforts; (3)
establish drug control institutions and regional cooperation in the Newly
Independent States of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe
(NIS); (4) strengthen host government law enforcement and judicial institutions;
(5) provide advice on drafting national legislation to implement the UN Drug
Convention; (6) provide training and technical assistance to help countries
implement chemical control regimes; and (7) continue our maritime
cooperation training program. The Administration support delivery of these
programs through UNDCP and to play a leadership role in the CND as the
Commission prepares for the June 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session on
International Drug Control.

Because international criminals respect no law or border it is in every
nation's interest to fight them together.

Madeleine K. AlbrightSecretary of State July 28, 1997

Summit of the Americas. At the Summit of the Americas in December
1994 hosted by President Clinton in Miami, the Heads of State and Government of
the Western Hemisphere agreed there was a need for intensified action by all
their governments, individually and collectively, to address the problems of
illicit production and trafficking of drugs and their illegal use. Plans of
action were developed in the Summit of the Americas process to bar laundering of
the proceeds, property and instrumentalities of criminal activities. At the
April 1998 Summit held in Santiago, Chile, the Administration worked closely
with its hemispheric partners to improve further regional anti-crime
cooperation. In addition, they committed to develop under OAS auspices a
multilateral counterdrug evaluation mechanism.

Dublin Group. Through the Dublin Group, which meets annually, the
Department of State disseminates information to other governments about U.S.
counternarcotics policies and objectives and tries to enlist support for them.
In addition to the United States, Group members include Austria, Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy,
Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the
United Kingdom. Mini-Dublin Groups, which operate around the world in smaller
regional groupings sponsored by individual host nations, provide excellent
forums to examine host country counternarcotics programs and to identify areas
for improvement. Continued U.S. support will be provided for these initiatives.

Colombo Plan. United States participation in the Colombo Plan Drug
Advisory Program -- a regional organization based in Sri Lanka and comprising
over 20 Asia-Pacific jurisdictions -- bridges the supply and demand sides of the
international drug problem, complementing bilateral U.S. assistance for regional
law enforcement narcotics training throughout South Asia with drug prevention
programs in Southwest and Southeast Asia. The United States will maintain its
involvement in the Colombo Plan, which helps achieve U.S. goals in countries
where direct American influence has been limited.

CICAD. The United States is also the principal financial sponsor of
the Inter-American Drug Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of
American States, which was founded in 1986 as both a program and policy body to
address issues of drug supply and demand in the Western Hemisphere. Through
CICAD, OAS members work together to reduce the supply of illegal drugs and to
control chemicals used to manufacture them. CICAD also promotes education about
the harmful effects of drug use and encourages treatment of drug problems.
Active U.S. participation in CICAD will continue.

FATF. Encouraging worldwide adoption of internationally accepted
anti-money laundering standards is another key to the Strategy. The United
States is a leading member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Comprising
26 jurisdictions plus two regional bodies that represent the world's major
financial centers, FATF is the global leader in its field. Under the U.S.
presidency of FATF in 1996, the organization revised and reissued its Forty
Recommendations on combating money laundering to extend their scope beyond the
laundering of illegal drug proceeds to include monies derived from all serious
crimes and to mandate the reporting of suspicious transactions by financial
institutions. A second round of mutual evaluations -- assessments of a member
state's anti-money laundering measures by representatives from fellow members --
also started last year and will continue through the next several years. In the
coming years, the FATF will promote the development of regional FATF-style
bodies and will likely increase its own membership to expand its effectiveness.
As FATF norms continue to gain prominence throughout the world, so too do the
anti-money laundering practices that the United States and other FATF members
are continuing to develop and implement.

CFATF. The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) comprises
24 regional jurisdictions and is supported by five Contributing and Supporting
Nations including the United States. CFATF has not only adopted FATF's Forty
Recommendations, but also has developed and adopted 19 additional
region-specific recommendations and is in the process of conducting a first
round of mutual evaluations of its members. As technology improves and continues
to provide new ways to steal and launder money, CFATF is attacking these
problems by bringing together experts on issues such as cyberpayment systems and
Internet gaming. With the active support of the United States and our
international partners, CFATF is emerging as a model for development of other
regional anti-money laundering organizations around the globe.

Multilateral Groups to Combat Alien Smuggling. In addition to the
G-8 and the UN Crime Commission, the United States is involved in other
multilateral efforts to combat alien smuggling. These groups include the
Inter-Governmental Consultations Group on Asylum, Refugee and Migration policies
(IGC), the Budapest Group and the Puebla Group. The IGC is composed of
immigration experts from 15 countries in North America, Australia and Western
Europe, and its focus is alien trafficking and returns. The Budapest Group,
composed primarily of European countries, has a similar mandate and focuses on
illegal immigration through Central and Eastern European states. The Puebla
Group, established in March 1996, consists of Central and North American
immigration officials who cooperate in the areas of migration, alien smuggling,
migrants' human rights, and technology applications. The United States will
continue to use its membership in these multilateral groups to exchange
information on smuggling trends, coordinate bilateral and multilateral
operations, and encourage countries to enact and update their statutes
criminalizing alien smuggling.

WCO. The United States is the principal financial sponsor of the
World Customs Organization (WCO), which has over 145 member countries spanning
the globe. In addition to facilitating international trade -- which serves our
national interest, economic security and foreign policy objectives -- the WCO's
enforcement and training activities serve our crime fighting goals. These
activities include interdicting illegal drugs and other contraband, promoting
anti-smuggling and anti-money laundering initiatives, reducing commercial fraud,
promoting effective enforcement of intellectual property rights, and fighting
emerging crime problems, such as Internet-related crimes. During the coming year
in the WCO, the United States will promote improved information exchange on
measures for detecting and responding to illicit trafficking in radioactive
materials, encourage the development of a WCO-UNDCP-INTERPOL project to share
seizure information on illicit drugs, and promote the establishment of a model
code of conduct to guide WCO members in customs transactions and to maintain
transparent customs administrations.

Crime does not respect international borders. That is why it is so
important that our nations work together to prevent criminal activity and pursue
criminals wherever they may flee.

Janet RenoAttorney General November 17, 1997

INTERPOL. The continuing U.S. role in the International Criminal
Police Organization (INTERPOL) also furthers the Strategy. INTERPOL serves as a
conduit for the rapid and secure exchange of international criminal
investigative information among the police forces of the member countries. As
stated in its constitution, the organization's goals are "to ensure and
promote the widest possible mutual assistance between criminal police
authorities within the limits of laws existing in the different countries and in
the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." INTERPOL is
currently expanding its criminal database, and improving data capture, query
methods and response time. The Administration fully supports these goals, and
the United States will continue to participate actively in INTERPOL.

EUROPOL. Under our New Transatlantic Agenda with the European Union,
we are considering cooperative efforts with EUROPOL, an intelligence analysis
center that is being created by agreement of the members of the European Union.
As this police organization becomes fully operational, the United States will
seek to negotiate cooperative agreements between EUROPOL and U.S.-based law
enforcement authorities.

Key International Agreements

Our bilateral agreements on extradition, mutual legal assistance, maritime
drug smuggling, stolen vehicles, and other anti-crime measures are critical to
implementing the Strategy. So too are the multilateral agreements into which the
United States has entered. While multilateral agreements underlie the majority
of the regional and international organizations in which the United States
participates, a few are of special importance to the Strategy.

UN Drug Convention. The 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic
in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988 UN Drug Convention) is the
principal international agreement underlying the world's efforts to stop the
production and transportation of illegal drugs. Approximately 150 nations and
jurisdictions around the world have signed, ratified or acceded to the 1988 UN
Drug Convention, which also serves as the basis for global precursor chemical
control, anti-money laundering measures, asset seizure provisions, extradition
and mutual legal assistance. An original Convention signatory, the United States
actively continues to promote its goals and objectives whenever possible.

Chemical Precursor Agreement. In May 1997, the Administration signed
the Chemical Precursor Agreement with the European Union. The agreement provides
for advance notification of chemical shipments between the parties so that the
importing country can verify the legitimacy of the proposed end use and end
user. For some chemicals, shipment will not be permitted absent the
authorization of the importing country. Further, the agreement provides for
information exchange on suspicious shipments to third countries. A joint
U.S.-European working group met in November 1997 and established concrete
measures and procedures to implement the agreement. As a result, law enforcement
and regulatory authorities are now exchanging information on proposed shipments
of controlled chemicals to identify and halt potentially suspect shipments.

Multilateral Chemical Reporting Initiative (MCRI).

The MCRI is a U.S. initiative, launched in 1997, to promote information
exchanges between major chemical trading nations, which are essential to
preventing diversion of chemicals from legitimate commerce to illicit drug
manufacture. Information sharing limits traffickers' ability to "shop"
among chemical source countries until they obtain chemicals from a country
unaware of their intention to divert it for illicit purposes. With information
exchange, chemical source countries can share information on the identities of
illicit customers and curtail such shopping. The MCRI, an informal, voluntary
cooperative arrangement, promotes the participation of all chemical source
countries in the information exchange process to the extent permitted by their
commercial confidentiality policies and regulations.

OAS Mutual Assistance Treaty. The Inter-American Convention on
Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and its accompanying Optional Protocol
(which allows for cooperation in international tax cases) were signed by the
United States in 1995 and advance the Strategy's goals. Awaiting Senate
ratification, these instruments are the first multilateral treaties among OAS
members for international judicial cooperation.

IPR Treaties. The Administration promotes improved protection of
U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR) through the WTO Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty, and the WIPO Performances and
Phonograms Treaty. Collectively, these three treaties set international norms
for protecting copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and semiconductor
designs, as well as protecting copyrighted materials when they are transmitted
over electronic networks such as the Internet.

UN Aircraft Convention. The United States is a party to three,
long-standing UN conventions and one protocol aimed at preventing crimes against
civilian aviation, including acts of terrorism: the Convention on Offenses and
Certain Other Acts Committed Onboard Aircraft, the Convention for the
Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, the Convention for the Suppression
of Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation, and the Protocol for the
Suppression of Violence at Airports Serving International Civil Aviation. The
United States has also included provisions on cooperation against threats to
civil aviation in its more than 100 bilateral aviation agreements.

I intend to keep us involved with every freedom loving country in the
world that will stand up to the terrorists and the thugs that would rob innocent
people of their future.

President Bill ClintonMarch 23, 1996

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. To protect Americans from the
devastating consequences of weapons of mass destruction, the Administration
vigorously and successfully negotiated extension of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention
during the past year. While often thought of in strictly military terms, these
and related treaties also serve to reduce the ability of international criminals
and criminal syndicates to obtain, transport and use deadly radioactive and
chemical substances. The Administration will work together with the other
signatories to these international agreements in reducing the threat from
criminal use of these substances.

OAS Firearms Treaty. The Administration has been at the forefront of
creating a system for international cooperation to combat illicit trafficking in
firearms. We are working to ensure that international efforts are consistent
with our laws, and we are providing specific instruction to law enforcement
officials in the Americas, Asia and Europe in techniques to identify and combat
arms smugglers, and to facilitate prosecutions against specific gun smuggling
criminal organizations.

In October 1997, after five months of negotiations in which the United
States and Mexico played a leadership role, a working group of OAS member states
reached final agreement on the text of a hemispheric convention to combat the
illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives and
related materials. The convention was adopted by the OAS and signed by a number
of countries, including the United States, in November 1997. The convention
contains specific provisions requiring the signatories to, among other things,
ensure that all firearms are marked by the manufacturer and importer, designate
a point of contact for cooperation and information exchange, make the crimes of
illicit manufacturing and trafficking extraditable offenses, and pledge to
exchange technical information to improve the signatories' respective
efficiencies in combating these crimes. The Administration expects to forward
this convention to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification in
mid-1998.

International Bomb Convention. On December 15, 1997, the UN General
Assembly opened for signature a new and important law enforcement treaty, the
International Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings. The United
States signed the Convention on January 12, 1998. The United States had
initiated the negotiation of this convention in July 1996 in the aftermath of
the June 1996 bombing attack on U.S. military personnel in Dharan, Saudi Arabia,
in which 17 U.S. Air Force personnel were killed. That attack followed other
terrorist attacks in 1995-96, including poison gas attacks in Tokyo's subways,
bombing attacks by Hamas in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and a bombing attack by the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Manchester, England. The Convention fills an
important gap in international law by expanding the legal framework for
international cooperation in the investigation, prosecution and extradition of
persons who engage in such bombings. The Convention will be sent to the Senate
in the near future for advice and consent to ratification.

2. Improving Cooperation With Foreign Governments and Law Enforcement
Authorities

Training and Technical Assistance

United States law enforcement officials need capable, reliable counterparts
overseas. Our training efforts have been devoted to: building relationships and
capabilities in such areas as fighting organized crime; supporting
counterterrorism capabilities through forensic, investigative and other
specialized police training; teaching law enforcement forensics and
investigative techniques; providing legal and investigative training in
intellectual property rights enforcement; recognizing and investigating white
collar crime; teaching anti-smuggling techniques at ports and borders; enhancing
internal security to combat corruption; strengthening prosecutorial and judicial
systems; providing firearms tracing and identification training; combating
fugitive issues through enhanced understanding and implementation of extradition
regimes; and providing a range of specialized courses for middle and senior
management law enforcement officials on how to develop lasting law enforcement
institutions. Through these programs, we have trained thousands of foreign law
enforcement officials all over the world.

Federal officials work closely with each other and with their foreign
counterparts to ensure that training and technical assistance programs meet our
anti-crime goals, our overall national interests and foreign policy objectives,
and the needs of host governments. Our programs emphasize institution building
in the host country for the best, long term results, maximizing our ability to
reduce training and technical assistance costs over the long run. For example,
INS offices overseas continue to provide training and technical assistance
relating to anti-smuggling and fraudulent document detection to host country law
enforcement officials worldwide. To date, in fiscal year 1998, 2,400 officials
have been trained, resulting in 1,597 intercepts of criminals seeking to enter
the United States.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) anticipates that in fiscal
year 1998 it will respond to over 60,000 requests for gun traces from foreign
law enforcement agencies. ATF and Customs are actively involved in training
foreign law enforcement officers in seizure, identification and tracing of
firearms, as well as providing technical advice on how to establish government
offices regulating firearms, laboratories and other organizations to support
host country illegal firearms interdiction efforts.

These programmatic activities will continue to be expanded as rapidly as
possible. Five years ago, the President asked Congress to provide resources for
a coordinated effort to combat international crime. With those funds, the
Administration is making great progress both regionally and on a crime-specific
basis.

ILEA: Teaching Effective and Ethical Crime Control. The
International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA), established in April 1995 in
Budapest, Hungary is a prime example of U.S.-provided training and technical
assistance. Nine federal agencies provide instruction at the academy, which
offers two types of programs. One is an eight-week program for mid-level police
managers focusing on personnel, financial and investigative management,
leadership, ethics and the rule of law. The other program is for criminal
justice officials and focuses on combating organized crime, financial crime,
nuclear smuggling and narcotics trafficking. Over 1,000 law enforcement officers
and prosecutors have attended ILEA in just two years.

The Administration is in the process of establishing an ILEA for Latin
America. The first pilot overseas course was held during November and December
1997. It was attended by 32 senior law enforcement officials from eight foreign
countries, and it featured instructors from Justice and Treasury who provided
instruction on advanced investigative techniques in money laundering and drug
trafficking.

The Administration intends to replicate these initiatives by establishing a
comparable academy in East Asia.

Other Regional Training Initiatives. Throughout the Caribbean and
Central America, the Administration is working closely with senior foreign
officials to develop regional training and technical assistance strategies to
combat international crime. Increasing communication among the varying legal
systems in the region, exchanging tactical law enforcement information,
improving detection of false documents and smuggling activities, and increasing
the speed and intensity of mutual legal assistance against criminals are central
aspects of this effort.

In West Africa, American law enforcement and foreign policy agencies are
working closely to disrupt and curtail West African criminal operations often
involved in narcotics trafficking, money laundering and business fraud. The
range of initiatives includes expanded use of diplomatic demarches -- formal
diplomatic presentations of our policies to a foreign government --
implementation of stricter guidelines for visa issuance, enhancement of
immigration and extradition proceedings, and development of public information
documents.

With $49.4 million in Freedom Support Act funds used in the Newly
Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS), as well as Support for East
European Democracy (SEED) Act funds in Central and Eastern Europe, the
Administration has expanded rule of law and criminal justice reform programs in
the NIS and in Central and Eastern Europe, providing training to promote human
rights and professional integrity to nearly 10,000 law enforcement officials in
those regions. The Administration will continue to promote joint case work
between U.S. law enforcement agencies and their foreign counterparts and has
institutionalized cooperative agreements that allow information sharing and
collaboration in crime prevention, investigations and prosecutions. The
Administration also has implemented programs in these regions using the U.S. "strikeforce"
approach, which combines the efforts of prosecutors, judges and law enforcement
agents, as a model for criminal investigation and prosecutorial training.

Federal efforts also have strengthened criminal justice systems in the NIS,
Central and Eastern Europe, Central America, the Middle East and Africa to
combat the weak law enforcement that has long benefited criminals in those
regions. Comparable efforts have enhanced civil law enforcement capabilities and
local policing in the NIS, Central and Eastern Europe, Lebanon and South Africa.
These efforts have included support for units designed to investigate and
prosecute human rights violations by law enforcement officials, develop
institutional mechanisms to combat corruption, and discourage financial crime.
Techniques include on-site auditing, inspection of financial institutions, and
openness in public contracting. Similarly, battling corruption in developing
countries and in countries in transition in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe
and the Americas is a consistent focus of the Strategy. All these programs will
continue to advance American interests not only by reducing prospects that U.S.
nationals and businesses will become direct victims of criminal activities, but
also by improving U.S. government interaction with stronger and less corrupt
foreign governments.

Terrorism. International terrorism takes many forms and can strike anywhere.
Counterterrorism cooperation has been enhanced by the Department of State's
Anti-Terror- ism Assistance (ATA) program under which foreign security officials
have received training in explosive detection and deactivation, hostage
negotiations, airport security, crisis management, personal security protection
and human rights. In fiscal year 1997, 65 countries participated in the program.
Since 1984, over 19,000 people from 104 countries have participated in the ATA
program.

Drug Trafficking. The United States cooperates with its partners in
conducting drug interdiction operations. These operations anticipate shifting
trafficking patterns in order to disrupt the activities of criminal drug
organizations and interdict illegal drugs in source and transit countries.
Numerous agencies provide assistance to foreign partners to further their
operational goal of drug interdiction. The Coast Guard provides assistance to
our foreign partners to develop multi-mission maritime organizations, including
organizational management, resource development, training, and standardization
of procedures and interoperability capabilities that enhance international
cooperation. The Department of Defense provides extensive detection and
monitoring capabilities to U.S. and partner nation interdiction efforts through
the Joint Interagency Task Forces (JIATFs), which facilitate interdiction
operations between U.S. agencies and their foreign counterparts. The Customs
Service provides assistance to partner nations and private shipping concerns to
help develop port security mechanisms and systems to provide for exchange with
other nations of drug trafficking information, as well as to train foreign
government officials in contraband interdiction methods.

The Department of State coordinates programs to strengthen the criminal
justice sectors of foreign governments to enable them to break up the full range
of major trafficking activities and organizations and to enhance their ability
to investigate, prosecute and convict major narcotics criminals. The State
Department Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)
funds a broad spectrum of drug and crime control programs around the world
designed to strengthen host nation institutions and to help build the
capabilities to carry out the full range of law enforcement, prosecutorial and
judicial activities, and these programs will continue to receive major emphasis
by the Administration.

Alien Smuggling. The Administration has created regional anti-alien
smuggling capabilities in Central America and the Caribbean, suggested
replacement of corrupt foreign immigration and customs officials, strengthened
data sharing with and among European countries on global networks of alien
smugglers, secured the repatriation of hundreds of Chinese migrants from
smuggling vessels, and facilitated the training of law enforcement officials
throughout the world in techniques to identify fraudulent documents. These
federal efforts to reduce alien smuggling will continue.

Trafficking in Women. In April 1997, the Departments of Justice and
State hosted 50 Russian and U.S. officials and representatives of
nongovernmental organizations to examine the legal and law enforcement
implications of trafficking of Russian women internationally. The Administration
is providing criminal justice training in the NIS and Central America to deter
migrant trafficking, and trafficking in women and children. Administration
efforts to assist countries in combating trafficking in women will expand in the
future pursuant to a March 1998 Executive Memorandum from the President. In
addition to providing further training to foreign immigration and border patrol
officials worldwide, Administration and Ukrainian officials have agreed to use
Ukraine as a model for implementing a comprehensive strategy against trafficking
in women. The United States would direct a portion of its foreign assistance to
Ukraine to focus on three critical areas in the fight against trafficking in
women: prevention, enforcement and victim assistance.

Stolen Cars. The quality and supply of automobiles in the United
States make them prime targets for thieves who transport them abroad.
Approximately one fifth of all cars stolen in the United States find their way
to other countries, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. To
address this problem, the Administration is currently negotiating bilateral
treaties in Central and South America -- several of which we anticipate will be
ready to sign in 1998 -- to build upon our long-standing stolen car recovery
treaty with Mexico and upon the treaties that we recently have concluded with
the Dominican Republic, Belize, Poland and Guatemala. We also have conducted
training of foreign law enforcement officials to locate, identify and recover
those vehicles, all along working closely with the U.S. private sector to
utilize its expertise in combating the international trade in stolen cars. The
Administration plans to expand this initiative to recover even more vehicles
that are stolen in the United States and then illegally transported out of the
country.

Money Laundering. The Administration has created an anti-money
laundering and financial crime program with activities that literally span the
globe. Working in a coordinated fashion, U.S. diplomats, law enforcement agents,
regulators and financial analysts have drafted and reviewed money laundering
legislation and regimes in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and
Europe and have provided training and technical assistance to countries seeking
to strengthen their capabilities against money laundering. In Russia, for
instance, U.S. regulatory, law enforcement and foreign affairs specialists are
working as a team with their counterparts to develop new laws, regulations and
investigative capabilities. The Administration plans to implement new anti-money
laundering initiatives in countries in countries throughout the world, including
in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Romania. In 1997, the Administration
also embarked upon an innovative, multi-year, multilateral training program with
the EU in conjunction with CFATF and UNDCP in the Caribbean to address the
problem of money laundering in that region.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Violations. The protection of
intellectual property rights throughout the world is a priority for the
Administration and for U.S. industry. The Department of State, in conjunction
with the U.S. Trade Representative, the Departments of Justice, Commerce and the
Treasury, and the private sector, has drafted a comprehensive plan to improve
foreign investigation and prosecution of IPR violations. The plan will include
training foreign customs officials to identify pirated goods and training
foreign judges and prosecutors in principles of intellectual property rights
prosecutions.

3. Strengthening the Rule of Law Internationally as a Foundation of
Democratic Government and Free Markets

The United States will also continue its efforts to promote the rule of law
as the foundation for democratic government and free markets. These efforts
will focus especially on countries seeking to establish or consolidate
democratic institutions, particularly those rebuilding after civil conflict.
These emerging democracies are particularly vulnerable to the operations of
international criminals. Poverty in many countries has provided ample incentive
for the pursuit of illegal forms of enrichment at tremendous cost to overall
social and economic development. In the case of Russia and Central and Eastern
Europe, part of the legacy of communism has resulted in legal systems inadequate
to enforce the rule of law in a free market environment or to serve as the
foundation for democracy. The success of all these states in earning the
confidence of their citizens through effective law enforcement institutions
depends greatly on the development of professional law enforcement officers,
prosecutors and judges who understand and operate under the rule of law.

Programs to Strengthen the Rule of Law.

The United States has implemented a variety of programs to strengthen, and
in many cases to restructure, basic criminal justice systems abroad. Each of
these programs entails fundamental changes in the ways in which the courts,
prosecutors and police work and the ways in which they relate to one another.

Latin America. A successful transition to an accusatory system of
criminal justice is widely believed to hold the key to overcoming historic
inefficiencies in the administration of justice in Latin America that have
permitted large numbers of crimes to go unpunished. Often overlooked, but
equally important to this rearranging of functions, is the creation of an
effective legal defense system, both public and private. Through the Department
of State and AID, the United States has supported these and other extensive law
enforcement and judicial reform efforts, including those to: (1) promote
increased transparency and professionalism within the criminal justice system;
(2) develop and provide national standards for police recruitment, vetting and
training; (3) draft new criminal procedure codes and the implementing
regulations for those codes, as well as manuals for use by police officers,
prosecutors and judges; and (4) train police and prosecutors in developing
investigative techniques and skills. Other programs funded by the State and
Defense Departments aim to educate the police and armed forces to strengthen
respect for human rights and the rule of law.

Implementation of these efforts will continue to be supported throughout the
Western Hemisphere and elsewhere as appropriate. In other parts of the world,
different historical contexts present different opportunities and even greater
challenges in fundamental institution building.

Bosnia-Hercegovina. The United States is helping to develop
competent, ethnically integrated police forces in Bosnia and Eastern Slavonia.
In Bosnia, the United States is providing approximately 200 American police
officers to the UN International Police Task Force (IPTF) which is monitoring
the work of local police and helping to restructure and train the police to
implement democratic policing principles and procedures. We also are providing a
bilateral assistance program to the local police in support of the UN
restructuring effort. This effort includes provision of equipment and training,
some of which is implemented by the Justice Department's International Criminal
Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP). The Administration is
participating in judicial institution reforms as well. In Eastern Slavonia, the
United States assists the UN Transitional Administration in establishing
effective police capabilities, and we also are supporting continued UN police
assistance following Eastern Slavonia's January 1998 reintegration under the
Government of Croatia.

Albania. In Albania, the United States has initiated a program,
largely implemented by ICITAP, to help rebuild an indigenous policing capability
that operates within international standards of democratic policing and human
rights.

Romania. Working in conjunction with the UNCICP, the Administration
is working with the government of Romania to design and implement a long term
anti-corruption program to build local institutions and to strengthen Romania's
capacity to fight organized crime. Funded by the Department of State, the
program focuses on assisting the drafting of anti-corruption legislation by the
Romanian parliament, developing and conducting train-the-trainer courses,
establishing an anti-corruption commission, organizing visits by senior foreign
law enforcement personnel to discuss how other countries address corruption
issues, and developing a public information campaign on corruption issues.

South Africa. In support of South Africa's own recent national crime
prevention strategy, the United States has provided training to the South
African Police Service and the Ministry of Safety and Security in investigative
techniques and case building. The United States also will provide expertise to
assist judicial training and institutional restructuring along democratic lines,
to institute anti-money laundering measures, and to establish a national witness
protection program.

Haiti. In Haiti, we are helping to establish and train a civilian
police force by funding the operation and development of the Haitian National
Police (HNP) Academy and by contributing approximately 38 Creole-speaking
Haitian-American police officers to the UN mission to serve as mentors to the
HNP. The Administration is also supporting the development of the Haitian Coast
Guard and the Counternarcotics Unit to reduce drug trafficking and related
crimes. Additionally, we are providing assistance in drafting anti-money
laundering laws.

Resident Legal Advisors. In addition, in a cooperative State-Justice
program, the United States has dispatched several legal advisors to the NIS and
to Central and Eastern Europe to assist governmental efforts to counter criminal
activities by creating strong independent judicial systems and by drafting
criminal law legislation, as well as by promoting the passage of such
legislation. These long term resident legal advisors also coordinate U.S.-funded
programs for institutional development, legislative and judicial reform, and
training of public prosecutors and judges to apply the new legislation. These
programs include all aspects of legal reform from evidence collection to
prosecution. Currently, these advisors are stationed in Latvia, Poland, Russia
and Ukraine with a new posting planned for Romania.

Building effective institutional mechanisms such as these takes time, and
the Administration envisions that these rule of law programs will continue in
the years to come.

Global Cooperation Works

The Seychelles felt the influence of the FATF in 1996 when for the first
time FATF issued a worldwide press release advising that all financial
transactions into or out of that country should be treated with enhanced
scrutiny because the government of the Seychelles had approved laws that could
have given money launderers the opportunity to launder their ill-gotten gains
with impunity. In response to that international pressure, the Seychelles
government did not implement the laws in question. With the Administration's
support, FATF is also expanding its initiatives and influence in the Pacific Rim
through the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering of which the United States is
a member. The United States is an active participant in other organizations that
address money laundering, including the Egmont Group of financial intelligence
units, CICAD, the Council of Europe, and the Offshore Group of Bank Supervisors.

Need for Common Standards: Fighting Corruption and Bribery

The United States has had substantial success in developing international
standards to counter international crime. By securing passage of the
International Declaration On Crime And Public Security by the UN General
Assembly in October 1996, the Administration has established an overall
framework for international cooperation against crime. The United States has
also focused attention on passing standardized legislation to criminalize alien
smuggling, money laundering and intellectual property theft.

The Administration also has worked aggressively for adoption of
international standards to thwart corruption in commercial activity, especially
bribery linked to organized crime. Organized crime now uses bribery as one of
its primary tools to establish front companies aimed at gaining control of
legitimate businesses and penetrating the legitimate economy. This corruption
can spread like a virus in the public and private sectors. Foreign governments,
including our allies and trading partners, can no longer afford to condone
bribery and other corrupt practices. In so doing, they not only harm legitimate
American businesses, which are legally prohibited by U.S. law from engaging in
such activity, but they further the interests of organized crime. Bribery and
corruption must be criminalized, investigated and prosecuted both at home and
abroad.

In a significant achievement, the United States and other OECD countries
recently signed a convention requiring the criminalization of bribery of foreign
public officials in international business transactions. The OECD Council has
recommended that member countries take steps to eliminate the tax deductibility
of bribes to foreign public officials. The United States has put forward an
initiative in the WTO to enhance transparency and openness in government
procurement as a means of combating bribery and corruption in government
contracts and as a method for ensuring fair international competition.

In 1996, the OAS adopted the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, a
hemispheric treaty against corruption that has been signed by the United States
and more than 20 other OAS member States. The Convention is now in force and
has been ratified by at least eight states. On April 1, 1998, the
Administration transmitted the Convention to the U.S. Senate for its advice and
consent to ratification. The Convention is intended to create a hemispheric
framework for combating public corruption. It contains provisions that call for
the enactment of legislation criminalizing specified acts of corruption and for
a wide range of international cooperation (such as extradition, mutual legal
assistance and property measures) to enhance efforts to prevent, prosecute and
punish acts of corruption. Similar work has been undertaken, with U.S.
participation, at the 40-member Council of Europe. The Summit of the Americas
process has also been productive in promoting common standards, with the United
States and its hemispheric partners having signed an anti-corruption agreement
in December 1996.

Upholding Integrity Among Justice and Security Officials

In the post-Cold War era, no problem may be more pressing than upholding the
integrity of justice and security officials, especially in countries where there
have been significant problems with corruption. International crime and other
problems will likely prove insurmountable if abetted by corrupt justice and
security officials. Worse, internal corruption may, in time, threaten the very
fabric of international stability and peace. This vulnerability is particularly
evident in certain small countries where narcotics traffickers wield enormous
influence over, if not virtual control of, resource-constrained governments.

The United States will call for an international conference within the next
six months to frame the problem and develop model approaches for upholding
integrity among key justice and security officials worldwide. The conference
would collect basic facts on compensation, assess corrupting influences, review
relevant standards of ethical conduct, and take stock of ongoing national,
regional and global initiatives - all with a view to determining which
approaches to promoting integrity work, which do not, and what new approaches
might be developed.